Tag: convention center

Tekko is an annual Japanese Pop Culture convention, including all things anime, gaming, fashion, and music. It takes place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center on April 5-8. Tekko is in it’s 16th year, and has one of its best line ups coming this year!

Tekko has announced many special guests, including voice actors, DJs, cosplay judges, fashion designers, and fashion guests.

The band this year for Tekko is LM.C. This will be their first and only US east coast appearance! They are a Japanese rock band consisting of Maya on vocals and Aiji on guitar.

They have 8 full albums and two theme songs from the anime series REBORN!

One of the many voice actors they’ve announced is Monica Rial, who voices Mey Rin from Black Butler, Shiro from Deadman Wonderland, May Chang from FMA Brotherhood, Renge from Ouran High School Host Club, Tsubaki from Soul Eater, and many more! Bryce Papenbrook is another voice actor who will be there. He voices Eren from Attack on Titan, Kirito in Sword Art Online, Rin Okumura in Blue Exorcist, Masamoi Kida in Durarara!!, Henry in Fire Emblem Awakening, and many more! Another of the voice actors is Vic Mignogna, who voices Edward Elric in Fullmetal Alchemist, Tamaki Suoi in Ouran High School Host Club, Death Scythe in Soul Eater, Luciano in Code Geass, and many more! Luci Christian is the last voice actor that will be at Tekko. She voiced Wrath in Fullmetal Alchemist, Honey in Ouran High School Host Club, Alois in Black Butler, Medusa in Soul Eater, and many more!

Toshi Salvino is a multimedia visual artist that will be at Tekko. She is a visual artist with a focus on style and makeup, who uses her body as a canvas turning herself into a Living Art Doll. She currently lives in NY as a hair stylist and makeup artist as well as character performer. Hard Decora is an apparel and illustration brand, that will be at Tekko, that promotes aggressive individuality. Kamilah Jones started Hard Decora in 2014. She saw a Fairy Kei girl on tumblr carrying a pastel gun, which inspired her brand. Saki Tachibana will be joining Tekko from BABY, the Stars Shine Bright, which is a Lolita fashion clothing brand founded in Tokyo, Japan. The brand wants to make designs that make one feel like an elegant princess when wearing them. Many of Saki’s deigns come from fairy tales, black cats, and other themes.

Tekko will also have some other special guests. Dan Coglan, a.k.a. “Samurai Dan” and his wife Jillian are acknowledged masters of martial mayhem. They teach historical and hysterical panels on the way of the warrior as well as have high energy, mostly safe stage shows. Dan is also a standup comedian. Nancy Kepner is a guitarist, who writes clever songs about all fandoms! She currently has three albums and a YouTube channel called HeartfeltHumor. Tekko also has a four DJ line up this year for the dance!

Tekko is Pittsburgh’s premiere anime, gaming, fashion, music, and Japanese pop culture convention presented by the Pittsburgh Japanese Culture Society. This year, Tekko was able to bring in over 8,000 attendees, a new record for the convention. During the weekend there were many panels available to go to, so many that I wanted to split myself in half to try to attend them all!

One of the panels I was able to attend was “Did You Know? Shinigami Love Apples. Death Note In Depth”. This panel was all about Death Note, the speakers of the panel were even in cosplay. L asked if we were all Pro-Kira or Anti-Kira, which if you’ve watched this show you’re most likely Pro-Kira. Who wouldn’t love someone who wanted to get rid of all of the bad people and crime in the world? The room, unsurprisingly was Pro-Kira for the most part. They also brought it different aspects of how Death Note relates to the Bible. Another one of the panels we attended was “Sweet Viktuuri- Behind the Scenes of Yuri! On Ice”. This panel was interactive and very fun. You could definitely tell the presenter knew what she was talking about. I learned a lot about who Yuri was based off of and how the author came about making the show.

One of my favorite panels was “The Art of Packing your Lunch- Bento 101”. During this panel, Katy Wolfe taught us the ins and outs of packing a bento. A bento is a single serving meal, that consists of rice, fish or meat, and veggies. Katy told us that we should stay away from the bento kits, which are mostly way more expensive than any other bento box, rice shapers because they are hard to use and are horrible to clean. One of the last panels we visited was “Cooking With a Killer Robot”. This panel was about the video game Undertale and how to make the different foods in the video game. The presenters were Pixel By Pixel Cosplay. They were cosplaying as the main characters in the game: Alphys, Mettaton, Papyrus, Toriel, and Burgerpants. They made Starfaits (Mettaton’s favorite), spaghetti (Papyrus’ favorite), and Butterscotch Cinnamon Pie (Toriel’s favorite). These cosplayers never broke character and were some of the sweetest people.

Tekko held their opening ceremonies Friday evening. Comedian Uncle Yo was the host of these ceremonies; he introduced all of the guests they would have during the weekend. These guests included: MAGIC OF LiFE, Kimura U, Ian Sinclair, Brina Palencia, Jad Saxton, Cherami Leigh, Jeff Nimoy, Haenuli, and a four DJ line up. They also had a booth set up upstairs that helped with your cosplay if something happened to it. They had golden tickets under the seats during the opening ceremonies to win a comic or other special items, and we were lucky enough to get one under our seat. Nancy Kepner (HeartfeltHumor on youtube) was one of the musical guests. She writes and sings her own music, all about pop culture. Some of the songs she performed for us were the weeabo song, the fan service song, there –dere song, and a song about yuri on ice.

The band that performed this year was MAGIC OF LiFE. This was their first concert in the US. Before the concert, they had a Q&A session where we learned a lot about them, for example what they would’ve liked to be if they wouldn’t have made it in the music business, their Uncle Yo was the host of these ceremonies; he introduced all of the guests they would have during the weekend. These guests included: MAGIC OF LiFE, Kimura U, Ian Sinclair, Brina Palencia, Jad Saxton, Cherami Leigh, Jeff Nimoy, Haenuli, and a four DJ line up. They also had a booth set up upstairs that helped with your cosplay if something happened to it. They had golden tickets under the seats during the opening ceremonies to win a comic or other special items, and we were lucky enough to get one under our seat. Nancy Kepner (HeartfeltHumor on youtube) was one of the musical guests. She writes and sings her own music, all about pop culture. Some of the songs she performed for us were the weeabo song, the fan service song, there –dere song, and a song about yuri on ice.

The band that performed this year was MAGIC OF LiFE. This was their first concert in the US. Before the concert, they had a Q&A session where we learned a lot about them, for example what they would’ve liked to be if they wouldn’t have made it in the music business, their favorite anime, and what they like about America. Their concert was an amazing experience, between being in the front row and then getting their autographs afterwards.

Tekko had aa exhibition room and gaming room open throughout the weekend. There were many vendors in the exhibition room as well as the fashion designers trying to sell their merchandise. There was a variety of things to buy in the exhibition room, from gaming, to anime to fashion. There were body pillows, buttons, art, posters, corgi butt purses, and so much more!

One of the things I really liked that Tekko did was the closing ceremonies. During these ceremonies, they released the theme for next year as well as take in advice the audience was willing to give to make next year even better. They even gave a hint for who one of the voice actors might be next year!